Micromechanical acceleration sensors made from semiconductor substrates are known. It is further known to use, in the case of capacitive acceleration sensors having a detection direction perpendicular to a wafer plane, rocking electrodes which are based on a spring-mass system in which a movable seismic mass forms a plate capacitor with each of two counter-electrodes fixed to a substrate. The seismic rocking mass is in that case connected to the substrate via a torsion spring. If the mass of the seismic rocking electrode is distributed asymmetrically with respect to the torsion spring, an acceleration acting perpendicular to the substrate surface causes tilting of the rocking mass relative to the torsion spring. As a result, the capacitances of the two plate capacitors change with opposite signs. The changes in capacitance represent a measure of the magnitude of the acting acceleration. Similar acceleration sensors are discussed, for example, in patent specifications EP 0 773 443 B1 and EP 0 244 581 A1.
A disadvantage of such acceleration sensors is their sensitivity toward interference caused by mechanical stress. Such mechanical stress may, for example, consist of asymmetrical bending of the substrate induced by a housing of the acceleration sensor. Such an asymmetrical bending of the substrate leads to a change in the capacitances of the plate capacitors which is mistaken for acting acceleration.